The final seat to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Tournament of Champions will be given away through a special nine-man sit and go presented by the WSOP Academy. Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, Andy Bloch, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Gus Hanson, Don Cheadle, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Liv Boeree, and Paul Wasicka will battle it out for poker supremacy.
Navigating the process of inviting the nine poker hopefuls was WSOP Academy CEO Jeff Goldenberg, who sat down with Poker News Daily to discuss the June 10th qualifier.
Poker News Daily: Thanks for joining us. Talk about how the WSOP Academy came to acquire the final sponsor exemption to the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions.
Jeff Goldenberg: WSOP officials had talked to us about the possibility of getting a sponsor exemption for the Tournament of Champions if we could come up with a good idea of what to do with it. We were bantering around ideas and thought about giving it to an amateur. Then, we thought that didn’t make much sense because it was an all-star game. There are all of these really good players who haven’t won a bracelet and Harrah’s liked the idea.
PND: Talk about the inclusion of actor Don Cheadle in the final field of nine.
Jeff Goldenberg: He’s one of the very few actors that is truly dedicated to playing poker on a professional level. He’s serious about poker and plays with the desire to win. He’s also a student of the game and those are the traits we admire. Don will add a lot of good poker and entertainment at the table. We also chose him because of his philanthropic efforts with Ante Up for Africa.
We understand that Don sticks out as different, but we think he’s a valuable addition to the table and talented enough to compete. I understand why people would raise an eyebrow, but that’s the beauty of what Harrah’s is doing with it. It’s cool that people are having a debate as to who should be in it. That shows that Harrah’s is on the right track.
PND: Why was the decision made to allow non-bracelet winners a chance to compete? Why not invite players who did not make the top 20 in voting?
Jeff Goldenberg: We wanted it to be non-bracelet winners because they never had a chance to be voted in. If we took a secondary sample of people who didn’t get voted in and gave them another shot, it almost undermines the fan component of it. These people are all major players with major accomplishments.
PND: How did you come up with who the nine players would be? We noticed that pros like Paul Wasicka, Gavin Smith, and Patrik Antonius were noticeably absent.
Jeff Goldenberg: We basically looked for nine of the hottest players in the game with the most impressive results over the last year. That’s how we came up with everyone. Each person we approached accepted immediately, so we didn’t have to go to a backup list.
PND: The association with the Tournament of Champions must constitute pretty significant exposure for the WSOP Academy.
Jeff Goldenberg: It’s a great story for us. It’s a great way to further strengthen our relationship with the WSOP. It’s going to be great content for the website when it launches and it helps reinforce us as top of mind in the industry.
PND: Give us an update on the WSOP Academy’s classes at this year’s WSOP.
Jeff Goldenberg: The Ladies Event sold out on Tuesday, which is exciting, and we now have people on the waiting list. The Main Event Primer is July 2nd to 3rd and that’s selling very well. I’m most excited for the new Mind and Body Academy with Joe Navarro and Sam Chauhan. We’re excited about adding that to the repertoire because nothing like that has ever been done before. They’ve both had amazing results with their clients and to be able to package them and bring them to the casual player is really exciting. What you learn from them doesn’t just help you in poker, but it also helps you in many other areas of life.
PND: How can poker fans follow the action from the nine-man sit and go on June 10th?
Jeff Goldenberg: We’re going to announce who won and Tweet updates during the day at Twitter.com/WSOPAcademy. We’re going to film the tournament like a television show, with Ali Nejad and Phil Hellmuth providing commentary. Then, we’ll release the footage as part of the new site.
